International Scientific Conference «International Criminal Justice in the Turbulent World» will take place in the Academic Council Conference Hall of the National University «Odesa Law Academy» on 14 – 15 of September.

At the end of 2017, 20 years will have passed since the adoption of the UN General Assembly Resolution No. 52/160, which convened the Diplomatic Conference for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. The past years have made it clear that the shift in anticipations from supranational criminal courts is becoming more and more apparent. This is true for both the international legal scholarship and post-conflict societies.

A simple and obvious thesis that no peace possible without justice is no longer accepted without doubts.

The International Criminal Court and other acting and eventual hybrid and international criminal courts are expected to make a tangible contribution to overcoming the consequences of conflicts and reconciliation. These new expectations together with multi-vector nature of the stakeholders’ political interests require international criminal justice (ICJ) to be more effective in the turbulent world. All these issues are on current interest in Ukraine.

Online Broadcasting of the Conference

National University «Odesa Law Academy» welcomes to a new forum to discuss present and future of the international criminal justice through the frame of its institutional credibility.

The best experts on international criminal law, including the ICC Judge Anita Ušacka, the President of the Council of Europe anti-torture Committee Mykola Gnatovskyy together with other researchers and practitioners, will discuss the topical challenges for the international criminal justice.

The general theme of the event will be revealed in discussions within the framework of the Nuremberg (general theoretical and historical issues of ICJ), Hague (the law of international criminal courts ad hoc), Roman (the law of the International Criminal Court) and Freetown (hybrid criminal justice) panels.

This Conference is a forum for experience exchange between different practicing lawyers in the sphere of International Criminal Law. One of them is Prosecutor, Assistant Professor in the University of Stuttgart Eike Christian Fesefeldt. He is to talk about the difficulties and their overcoming in the implementation of International Criminal Law in the Germany legal system. The representatives of Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office, including the Department of Crimea, will also be present on the event. The conference will also be visited by a large number of human rights defenders who have somehow faced International Criminal Law issues.

Anita Ušacka graduated from the Law Faculty of the Latvian State University. Doctor of Law, professor at the University of Latvia. From 1994 to 1996, he was Executive Director of UNICEF. From 1996 to 2003 - judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia. Since March 2003, the judge of the International Criminal Court (Court and Appeal Departments), the head of the Appeals Department of the International Criminal Court from 2011 to 2012.

Theme of report: «International Criminal Court in Action».

Mykola Gnatovskyy is the President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, leading DRI expert on constitutional issues. Graduated from the Institute of International Relations of the T. Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, also trained at Harvard University (USA) and York University (Canada). Since 2009, he has been a member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, in 2013-2015 he was its vice president, and in 2015 he was elected as a president of the Committee. He cooperates as an expert with the Council of Europe, the OSCE, UNDP, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and others. Specialist in International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law and International Human Rights Law.

Wilkitzki Peter Herbert is Honorary Vice-President of the International Association of Criminal Law. He graduated from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and Bohn. 1991-1993 - Chairman of the Steering Committee of European Criminal Law. Since 2000 - Member of the Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute (Freiburg, Germany). Since 2009 - Vice-President of the International Association of Criminal Law. Since 2012, he has been an Honorary Professor of International Criminal Law and International Criminal Procedure at the University of Cologne. The author of a number of publications devoted to the problems of implementation and interpretation of the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Theme of report: «German Law and Practice on International Crimes and International Criminal Jurisdictions».

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Other speakers:

Ms. Ani Harutyunyan – National Assembly (Parliament) of Armenia, Standing Committee on Defense and Security. Creator and author of the International Blog “Beyond Flatland”. Theme of report: “The Space for Gravity: Selection or Selectiveness of Cases and Crimes at the ICC?”

Dr. Oumar Ba – Assistant professor of political science at the Morehouse College (Georgia, the USA). Theme of report: “The ICC as Testament to Hope and Symbol of Deception: International Justice and the Postcolonial Condition”.

Ms. Lilya Belfer – 4th year undergraduate student at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Russia). Theme of report: “The burden of proof for defenses before the ICC”.

Dr. Vitalii Gutnyk – Associate Professor at the Ivan Franko Lviv National University. Theme of report: “Some questions of cooperation between Ukraine and the International Criminal Court”.

Dr. Dmytro Koval – PhD in International Law, Associate Prof. at the National University "Odessa Law Academy", PhD Candidate in Sociology, Polish Academy of Science. Theme of report: “Contextual elements of international crimes: why are they so important and where do they come from?”

Dr. Iryna Marchuk – Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Theme of report: “The International Criminal Court’s 15th Anniversary: Between Politics, Combatting Impunity and Making Local Impact”.

Ms. Małgorzata Myl – University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Law and Administration, Professor assistant, PhD student, Department of International Public Law and European Law. Theme of report: ‘Family’ as a victim of international crimes.

Dr. Viacheslav Tuliakov – ad hoc judge at the European Court of human Rights, Vice Rector of the National university “Odessa Law Academy”. Theme of report: “Victimology of international criminal law”.

Dr. Eike Christian Fesefeldt – Prosecutor at the Prosecution Stuttgart, Lecture of FOM University. Theme of report: “Bringing Jihadists to Justice - International Criminal Law applied by German High Courts”.